Craigslist has become such a toxic mess that many users are giving up on it, claims this Globe and Mail story.

From the May 1 Globe and Mail:

Last week, a 49-year-old Michigan woman pleaded guilty to trying to hire a hit man on Craigslist to knock off her husband's mistress.

Last month, a Seattle woman was groped by a man claiming to be interested in the microwave she was selling through the online classifieds site.

On any given day, up to half the apartment rentals featured on Calgary's Craigslist are scams, according to those who monitor the site.

What the heck happened to Craigslist?

Since 1995, the California-based site has helped millions of the jobless, homeless and loveless out of a fix. The 30 million free ads posted on local Craigslist sites every month have become so popular that the site is rivalling newspapers in the classifieds game.

But not if this keeps up.

Recently, Craigslist has made daily headlines as a conduit for crime. From child prostitution rings and alleged murders to scams involving phony puppies, postings have become so clogged with fraudulent ads that some users are turning away from the site altogether.

"It's become infested," says Meg, a social worker who runs Here Be Dragons, a blog that identifies property scams on the site.

"I've been a Craigslist fan for years. It used to be a really interesting place to visit." ...

"Sometimes the rental ads there are 50-per-cent BS," said Meg, who voluntarily patrols Craigslist postings from her home in Vancouver. "I've become pretty good at sniffing them out. For instance, if the poster has 'Reverend' for a title, they automatically go on my list."

And if they make it on Meg's list, she doesn't play nice. She'll either try to have Craigslist block their posts or expose them on her blog, which is why she'd rather not have her last name published.

"I'm doing my very best to be a thorn in their sides," she said. "So I like to keep a low profile."

In the United States, Craigslist-related crimes have become so commonplace that one blogger has launched an entire site devoted to them. Up until last August, Trench Reynolds had been posting Craigslist news items on his main site, mycrimespace.com, "but the Craigslist stories got so big they were taking away from all the other stories on the site."

Now he posts a story or more a day at craigscrimelist.org. ...

The site does ban all illegal activity in its terms-of-use policy, and Craigslist employs an in-house anti-fraud team with about a dozen members, but they have a daunting task considering that about 40 million users post 30 million ads to the site every month.

When investigations lead police to Craigslist, the site's 25-member staff freely co-operates.

"Craigslist is an unwise choice of venue for committing crimes, since perpetrators inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law-enforcement officers can follow," (company spokeswoman Sandra MacTavish) Best stated in an e-mail. "Our staff actively works with police departments, and we even help train officers in using Craigslist."

Law-enforcement officials in Canada agree that Craigslist is not the problem; "It's the people using it who are," Cpl. Robertson said.